


Unconventional Conventionalists

by zorac



Series: Portland Ninja [3]
Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game), The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, International Fanworks Day 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-10-29 04:42:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17801246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zorac/pseuds/zorac
Summary: The Portland Hero-Con gets some unexpected special guests.Warning: Spoilers for Life is Strange 2, Episode 2





	Unconventional Conventionalists

**Author's Note:**

> It's International Fanworks Day, which means it's exactly two years since I first posted here. I didn't do anything LiS-ish last year, but this time around, LiS 2 has provided a little inspiration.

###### Kate

“I really don’t know why I let you drag me to this thing,” I tell Max, not very convincingly. It’s mid-January, and we’re at Portland Hero-Con 2017, surrounded by nerds and cosplayers. Considering that my girlfriend is a big giant nerd, and that we’re currently dressed as characters from Sailor Moon, this seems entirely appropriate. Okay, so maybe I’m a bit of a nerd, too; I did have a lot of fun making our outfits. I was slightly dubious at the shortness of my skirt, but that’s something I’ve been defying my mother on since my early teens – and the realization that I’d get to see Max in a similarly short skirt sealed the deal.

“It’s because you love me,” Max replies, “and because my geekishness has infected you.”

Izzy begged off coming with us, claiming ‘important thruple business’ – or, more likely, a lack of interest in superheroes – but Yasmin promised to be here; when I see Ms Marvel striding purposefully towards us, I know it must be her.

“As-salāmu ʿalaykum, Kamala,” I greet her, pleased that I’d picked up some details from the comics Max persuaded me to read.

“Dude, seriously, don’t use my secret identity in public!” she tells me, mock seriously, but I can see from her smile that she’s pleased.

“Oops! Sorry,” I tell her with a grin.

“Marvelous costume, Yasmin,” Max says, eagerly.

“Yeah, well, you two are looking pretty good, too,” she replies, somehow managing not to wince at the terrible pun. I feel like I should say something about how openly she’s checking out my fiancée, but as she does the same to me, I decide that I’m just fine with it. I’m not above having my ego boosted like that; at least, not when it’s the _fe_ male gaze. Besides, after all these months, I trust Yasmin implicitly; she’s been a great friend to Max, giving her someone else to talk to who has a better understanding of what it’s like for her to do the superhero thing than I do.

A couple of hours later, Max excuses herself to find a bathroom, leaving Yasmin and I to browse some of the stalls near the stage. When I glance up there, I see a firefighter being introduced; he looks oddly familiar. It take a few moments for me to place him as the Chief I’ve seen Max and Yasmin talking to after incidents a couple of times. “Yasmin, why is your boss up on the stage?” I ask her.

“Oh, I have no idea,” she says, but something about her tone of voice makes my eyes narrow. The Chief looks right at us, and I see the hint of a grin twitching at the corner of his mouth.

“I think he saw through your clever disguise,” I tell her.

“It’s not like my fangirling of Kamala Khan is a big secret,” she replies. “Now, pay attention.”

I look back to the stage, where the Chief is being give a microphone. “Thank-you. Now, those of you who are Portlanders will know that we have our very own superhero.” There’s a cheer from the audience, for my fiancée; I’m upset for Max that she’s missing this. “She may not have appeared in any comic books, or defeated any supervillains, but over the last few years she’s saved countless lives. It has been a distinct privilege for my officers and I to work alongside her. Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome… the Portland Ninja!”

The crowd stands dumbstruck for a few moments when Max simply appears out of thin air; then, they burst into wild applause. “Show-off,” I hear Yasmin mutter, and I can’t help but agree. Max hasn’t exactly been advertising her powers, but I suppose at this point enough people have seen her in action that it’s widely accepted she has _some_ sort of super-human abilities.

“Hi,” Max begins awkwardly, once the applause has died down. “First up, I want to say that the fine men and woman of Portland Fire and Rescue are the _real_ heroes in our city; I just help out occasionally.” This gets cheers and applause. “In particular, when I pushed myself too far last year, it’s the Chief here and his crew who dug me out of the rubble, got me to hospital, and even ran a fundraiser because super-heroing doesn’t come with medical insurance.” There’s laughter from the audience.

“Wow!” comes a voice from next to me. “Is she a real superhero?”

I look round to see a boy, maybe ten years old, standing next to me with an awestruck look on his face. He’s wearing a home-made costume, complete with a mask that looks like he drew it on his face with a marker pen. “She sure is,” I tell him. “What about you? That’s a pretty awesome outfit you’ve got on; who are you?”

“I’m Captain Spirit,” he tells me eagerly, “and I fight against the evil Mantroid. But… how is the Portland Ninja a superhero if she doesn’t fight villains?”

I bridle a little at that. “She rescues people. You know, from fires, collapsing buildings, things like that.”

He gives me a thoughtful look. “Oh, okay, that’s pretty heroic, too. The other hero I met, Superwolf, he saved me when I fell out of my Flying Fortress. He could move things with his mind, it was really cool!” I can’t help but smile at his eagerness and vivid imagination. A moment later, he notices Yasmin, and I’m instantly forgotten. “Oh, wow, you’re Ms. Marvel! I’ve seen your comics…” She’s more than happy to engage with him, and I snap a couple of pictures with my phone.

When I turn back to the stage, I see that Max has come down and is posing for photos. After a few minutes, I manage to catch her eye and nod towards my new friend. It takes a while for her to make her way over, and I intercept her just before she gets to us, whispering a couple of things to her under the pretext of taking a selfie. The kid sees her coming a moment before she reaches him.

“Greetings, Captain Spirit,” Max says, in a voice that’s not entirely her own. His eyes go wide as saucers.

“You… you’ve heard of me?”

“Yes,” Max says gravely, “news has reached me of your battle against Mantroid.” She reaches out to shake his hand, and I capture the moment.

“Wow. I, um, heard about you saving all those people, and that’s really cool.”

“Thank-you,” says Max, “it was an honor to meet you.” She nods to him, and then heads off to greet her next fan.

“Did you see that?” the boy asks, looking right past me.

“I sure did, Chris,” says another voice, which belongs to someone I assume to be his father, “but what did I say about wandering off?”

“Not to?” Chris replies sheepishly. “Sorry, Dad, but Ms. Marvel and…”

“Sailor Uranus,” I supply.

“…made sure I was okay. Plus, I got to meet a real live superhero! How cool is that?”

“That is pretty cool,” his father agrees, before turning to me. “Hi, I’m Charles Eriksen, thanks for keeping an eye on Chris here.”

“Not a problem, he’s a lovely boy. Look, I got a couple of photos of your son with the Ninja because I thought he might like to have a memento. If you can give me your email address or something, I can send them to you. I’ll delete the originals, of course.”

“Uh, you don’t need to do that, but thanks; Chris would get a kick out of having them.” I hold out my phone, and he quickly types in an address. “Well, it was nice to meet you, but we need to be going now. Come on, Chris, time to go get that pizza I promised you.”

No sooner are they gone, than Max returns, back in her original costume. “So, what did I miss?” she asks.

I cock an eyebrow at her. “Seriously?”

“What?”

“You just used your power in front of hundreds of people. You don’t think that’s going to attract some attention?”

“I’ve been caught on camera before.”

“Not like that. What if someone else figures out your secret identity? Do you want another psychopath coming after you? Or to have us dodging reporters for the rest of our lives? Remember, it doesn’t just affect you!” I see Max deflating in front of me, and the look on her face as tears begin to prick at her eyes tells me that she’s remembering seeing me get shot. Instantly, I pull her into a hug. “I’m sorry, Michiru-chan, I didn’t mean to…”

“No, you’re right, _I’m_ sorry. I’ll be more careful in future.” She gently kisses me. “Kudos for the in-character pet name, though; if you’re not careful, you’re going to turn into a bigger geek than me!”

“Right…” I glance at Yasmin, who’s been politely ignoring us. “C’mon, you two, let’s see what other nerdiness we can find.”


End file.
